We had booked business class seats on a direct train from Munich to Vienna for Monday at 3:30 pm. We got to the train platform at about 3:10 and waited. And waited. And waited. At NO point were any announcements made via a monitor in the station, the P.A. system, the app, or email. Not a single announcement! We weren't the only ones waiting, so we just hung out on the platform until about 3:45 and then we noticed that the train info had simply disappeared from the track sign. We made our way over to the information office to see if we could find out what was happening and had to stand in a long line before getting to speak with a person. When we finally got up to the desk and asked about our train, we were told, "It has been cancelled." Very matter-of-fact. No explanation at all. He printed out two sheets of paper with train numbers and departure times and told us our tickets were still valid and to get on the next train. Well, of course that meant we no longer had business class seats, which meant we didn't have assigned seats, but we just wanted to get to Vienna, so we quickly headed over to the platform and got on when the train arrived. What we discovered once we got settled was that the train was NOT direct and it ended up involving not only one, but two train changes, one of which was a very tight connection that we were worried about missing and one of which had a not insignificant layover of more than half an hour! We ended up getting to Vienna just before 10 pm, which more than two hours after our original arrival time. The train company did end up refunding the cost of one of the tickets for the inconvenience, which is about the only good to come of that stressful event. And let me be clear that we are NOT snooty travelers who must travel in business class. It was more about paying extra for more comfortable seats for a lengthy train ride and those seats being assigned so that we wouldn't have to fight the masses on a crowded train for two seats together!
When we finally got to our hotel to check in, the employee was not particularly kind or polite. At first, she couldn't find our reservation, and then when she did, she told us our check in was the NEXT day. Let me say this...while it is certainly not impossible for an error to occur, C does not make these kinds of mistakes. He pulled up the email and lo and behold, we were correct and the hotel was wrong. Any apology for basically being rude to us and insinuating that we were incorrect about the check in date? Of course not. Side note - I have repeatedly raved about how much easier it is to rent a car in Europe than in America, but the opposite is true for checking into a hotel in Europe. Why is it such a drawn out and laborious process? Check our identification, take our payment, give us the room keys...it is not difficult! And this is not specific to this particular check-in by any means! Every time, we are stymied by how arduous a process it is when we've traveled in Europe!
Despite a rocky start, we enjoyed our time in Vienna, mainly because of the places we visited. I am notorious for not knowing what we'll be doing on any non-Disney trip before we go because C is an amazing travel planner. I often don't even know what hotel we'll be staying at, which some people have a hard time believing because I am very Type A in some aspects of my life! For this trip, however, I knew one place we would be visiting because I'd been dreaming about it for over a decade - the Austrian National Library. It was everything I had hoped it would be and quite possibly the most stunning building I have ever set foot in! I was also hoping to hear a live performance of some works of Mozart while in Austria; we attended a concert where music from The Marriage of Figaro was showcased, and it was absolutely brilliant. We did both of these things on our wedding anniversary, so it was a pretty spectacular day!
Due to it being New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Vienna was insanely busy and many places closed early or were closed altogether, but we made the most of our time there. The weather was not very cooperative and we didn't see the sun or any blue sky until our last day, but it is a charming city even under gray skies. We did spend one of our days taking a side trip, which I will share in my next post!
We took the train from Vienna back to Munich today and this time, there were no issues with the train showing up! We had our reserved seats in business class and the trip was direct, which made for a much more pleasant experience that getting to Vienna had been! The trip took four hours, followed by a 40-ish minute subway ride from the central station out to the airport, where we are staying tonight before flying back to Toronto tomorrow morning!
Only one more sleep until we see Avalanche!
Happy Tails to you!
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